The Rvarn'ii
by WYSIWYG
Summary: The Master Chief's escape from Halo seems futile when his fighter is engaged by two Covenant cruisers, but both he and the Covenant themselves are in for a big surprise...
1. Old Enemies, New Friends

Disclaimer: Halo is the exclusive property of Bungie Software (God Bless 'Em). No money is made; I am simply honouring those wonderful, wonderful people. The Rvarn'ii 

            The Longsword shuddered violently as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 was unceremoniously awakened and jettisoned from his peaceful slumbering in the cryochamber. He gripped and steadied himself on the nearest bulkhead as second wave of vibration trembled through his surroundings, causing consoles to crack and spark quite spectacularly. He activated the comm. channel with his neural implant and hailed Cortana. 

            _What just hit us?_

_            Plasma charges Chief, two Covenant cruisers have just slipped out of subspace right behind us. _Cortana's voice sounded both thoughtful and panicky at the same time. The Chief sat back down into the control seat and activated the manual piloting controls. The manual displays crackled into life and despite the damage to the consoles, it was still both readable and operable by the Chief. His fingers started awkwardly activating all the necessary systems and defences. It didn't make good reading.

            _Cortana, just what combat systems are still online?_

_            Not many, primary missile and cannon batteries are offline, same with hull integrity and armour plating. Main Hyperspace and primary sublight drive engines are also screwed. We're running on thrusters and fumes Chief, and I don't know if we will survive their next barrage. We…shit; I've just detected three more burst incoming from the nearest cruiser. Taking evasive manoeuvre Tango-One-Charlie._

The Chief gripped the controls tightly as the craft lurched into an upward spin, before dramatically and repeatedly banking right and left with increasing regularity as the crippled fighter desperately tried to evade the much larger and more powerful Covenant vessels. The Longsword, despite its massive wounds managed to outrun two of the bursts, but the last clipped the port wing and the vessel shook with a massive jolt. The Chief flew forward into the flight consoles and feel to the floor badly winded and with a searing pain in his left arm.

            Then all the lights and consoles died and plunged the Chief into darkness. He couldn't feel his left arm after the pain died. He clutched the now useless limb and climbed, breathing hoarsely and rapidly, back into the control seat. But now no button responded to his touch.

            _How bad Cortana?_

_            The last shot just about finished us off. Main and auxiliary power circuits have been completely blown, thrusters and weapons offline. We're dead in the water Chief. _The craft shook again and then lurched suddenly, creating an awful grinding sound throughout the fighter's structure. _Chief! They have us in a tractor beam!_

            It was true; the nearest Covenant craft had locked on an energy beam on the rear of the Longsword and was slowly but surely dragging the crippled vessel into its main hanger. The Chief got up from the chair, and grabbed and opened a nearby medical kit. He took a stimulant and injected it into his left arm. Within a few seconds he got some numb feeling back, and he could just about move his fingers and elbow.

            He reattached the battle-worn helmet of his MJOLNIR suit and hurried to the armoury locker at the rear of the ship. He grabbed an Assault rifle and slung it over his shoulder, loading clips of the gun's 7.62mm ammunition and shoving it quickly into his belt at the same time. He then picked up the huge Sniper Rifle position in the middle of the locker and loaded a clip into it, four armour-piercing rounds and then a fight to the death with his rifle. The situation looked pretty hopeless. And Cortana.

            _Cortana?_

_            Yes, I know what you're thinking, Chief… John, please don't!_

_            The Cole protocol Cortana; no ship's AI must be captured by the Covenant. I'm sorry._

_            John, John…Please…_Cortana sounded frightened, and deep down in his heart so was he. Cortana had saved his life so many times in combat, and he owed her so much. Bitter, terrible emotions and thoughts ran through his mind, but now in the face of certain death or capture, then like any AI Cortana had to be disassembled. He sighed deeply, and within his suit, for the first time since he was six, he cried, a single, silent tear ran down his cheek as he struggled with the worst decision in his life. He slowly reached for the chip at the back of his suit.

            _JOHN!_

_            I'm sorry Cortana…_

            _John, there's another ship, coming out of subspace!_

_            Ours?_

_            I can't tell, I don't have the designs in my databanks. Go to the forward viewscreen and take a look. _John rushed to the forward window and looked out in frantic and anxious anticipation. But his face turned from surprise into despair as the arriving ship turned and revealed its Covenant origins. The chief took a step back and sighed again. He bought his rifle up to his chest in a defiant last salute and gazed at this new aggressor.

            But the new Covenant ship wasn't aiming for the Longsword. It had swept its bow past the dead human fighter and was now directly facing the pair of cruisers that had disabled it. John felt another lurch and he suddenly became aware that the Longsword was drifting again. The tractor beam had been cut off, and the Chief wondered what the hell was going on. He stared out the viewscreen again as the more familiar pair of Covenant ships appeared through the window, allowing him to view the strange interaction between the three ships.

            The newly arrived ship was larger, much, much larger than any John had seen; at least four or five times the size of the cruisers facing it. Its structure was different too, the decoration more simplistic and functional, the hull more curved and yet more imposing than the graceful lines of the smaller ships. But the weirdest thing of all was how the ships had reacted to each other. All three were now ignoring the Longsword and its passenger, and instead were facing each other down. The pair of smaller cruisers manoeuvred into a tactical striking position, and it seemed to John as if the Covenant ships were hostile to one another. Perhaps they were arguing who got the glory of capturing and killing the human's greatest warrior perhaps? Maybe, but there was something not quite right about it. The Covenant was not going to come to blows over him, surely?

            Then something very unexpected happened. The two smaller ships fired a burst of plasma shots at the newly arrived ship. The Chief watched in disbelief as the plasma bursts sped towards their target. The larger craft didn't move, and the Chief, unblinking, gazed in astonishment as the plasma simply dispersed in the bright yellow energy streams across the shields of the larger ship. The larger ship was undamaged, but it returned fire. Instead of the plasma bursts, however, an almost blindingly bright green energy beam shot out of the front of the hull, landing a direct hit on the bow of the nearest cruiser. The cruisers shields held for a moment, but soon began to wane. The barrier of energy started to curve inwards, and then with a flash of energy the shield collapsed entirely, and bright red sparks flew across the surface of the hull as the shield generators short-circuited and blew up. Both cruisers fired another volley of plasma at their opponent, and again the shots were dispersed harmlessly across the ships shielding.

            The larger (and by now obviously more powerful) Covenant ship fired its beam cannon again. The beam hit the hull right in the centre of the ship. The metal plating bulged for a second, and then a huge green and red explosion tore the middle out of the cruiser. Debris was flung out violently, and the Chief noticed several large, greenish-blue secondary explosions appearing all over the hull. The crippled cruiser went dark, its engines and weapons array powerless, and the ship began to drift. Its companion rapidly turned as it fired off a fleeting volley of plasma and slipped back rapidly into subspace.

            The Chief just stared, memorised at the dead Covenant ship. A hole had been blown right through from the top of the ship through to the bottom; the stars were visible on the other side of the cruiser through the bits of debris now floating aimlessly in space. The larger ship simply held its position for a minute as if contemplating what to do with its fallen prey, and then a single plasma coated device was fired from a small port visible for only a second. It sped towards its target, looking like an ominous shooting star from the Master Chiefs viewpoints. The device hit the dead cruiser and the plasma trail disappeared.

Two seconds later, the cruiser disappeared in a blinding flash of white light. The Chief ducked and covered his eyes, gripping a nearby console as the shockwaves vibrated heavily through the Longsword's hull. When the hull stopped shaking and the light dimmed, he looked out again at the dead ship. It was gone.

            The Chief stared at the spot in space where the cruiser had been, the hull pinging to the sounds of little bits of debris banging off the hull. 

            "Dust and Echoes" he muttered to himself. Then he remembered.

            _Cortana?_

_            Yep, still here. Not dead, and with no intention of being so either, despite your best efforts._

_            Don't try me…what the hell just happened out there?_

_            I'm not sure…John, I mean, Chief, the new ship, its, its different?_

_            How?_

_            I don't know, but these scans, I've seen a lot of warships in my time but none like this…CHIEF!_ He saw what she was warning him of. The new ship had turned towards them. Its bore down quickly on the drifting fighter, and then it fired. A green ball of swirling energy headed for them, and there was nothing the Chief could do except wait and pray.

            _Goodbye John._

            Goodbye… 

            The green energy ball struck the Longsword and everything went black. 


	2. Commander Briyanku of the Rvarn’ii

Disclaimer: Halo is the exclusive property of Bungie Software (God Bless 'Em). No money is made; I am simply honouring those wonderful, wonderful people. The Rvarn'ii: Part 2 

            The Chief's vision slowly returned to him, the picture slowly becoming sharper as his eyes tried to focus properly. He blinked for a few seconds, his eyes felt heavy and tired for some reason, and he slowly tried to pull himself up. He gripped a nearby console as he realised he was still on his Longsword fighter, although for some reason the craft was now entirely stationery. He stretched his various limbs, surprised how they too seemed to be almost numb. Every part of his body felt tired and dull, as if he had just been to sleep after a very exhaustive battle. Whilst waiting for the blood to flow back to his arms and legs, he took a brief look around the cockpit. For some strange reason the protective metal visors had come down over the viewscreen windows. All the controls and systems had been powered down and the Chief had to activate his inbuilt flashlight to see what had happened.

            His Assault Rifle was lying on the floor next to where he had fallen, and so was the Sniper Rifle too, lying flung across the bottom of the doorway where it had come to a rest. The Chief picked up the smaller weapon and bought it up to a firing position. He scanned the cockpit in detail, checking every square inch of the room to see if anything was out of the ordinary. Apart from the visors being shut, however, there was nothing noteworthy to see. An attempt to opened the visor failed, the armour being too tough to move with the power down.

            Then he heard a noise coming from behind him, like a distant footstep. The Chief turned quickly, bearing the Rifle down on where the sound came from. But nothing was there. The Chief trained his eyes and ears, trying to either hear the sound again or see the reflections coming off an active camouflage suit. His internal motion sensor picked up nothing.

            _Cortana…use your scanner and see if you can pick up anything._ But there was no reply. The Chief felt the area at the base of his MJOLNIR suit's neck, but her chip was gone. _Shit_ he thought, and bought the hand back under the barrel of the rifle. He walked slowly forward, heading to the rear of the ship. He tread softly, occasionally spinning round to try and see if anything had crawled up behind him. As he turned round near the rear of the fighter he saw that the hatchway was lowered, and was now resting on a blue coloured metal deck about a metre below the Longsword. The fighter was inside the Covenant ship!

            This put the Chief in a serious dilemma. The Covenant now, it seemed, had Cortana, and he had to go and rescue her before they could decode her memory files and retrieve the information held there, including the location of Earth. But he knew the moment he stepped off the Longsword the Covenant were going to wipe him out before he had fired off a clip.

            He crouched next to the hatchway, his eyes peering down the barrel at the blue deck below him. He breathed slowly as his mind ran over the thousands of tactics he had been taught by both his drill sergeants and his battlefield experience. Perhaps he could duck underneath the boarding ramp as soon as he got off, but he guessed that the Elites would have had every angle covered.  He could try throwing a few grenades down, but he didn't know whereabouts they were. He scanned the ground for shadows but couldn't make any out. And then something else occurred to him.

            _Why hadn't they killed him when they took Cortana? Or at least throw him in the brig? Was he in a prison cell now? Where they watching what he were doing? Was he actually awake? Was this a dream?_ He tapped the side of his helmet and felt the vibrations clear enough, so he was awake. He detached the clip and checked its contents. The bullets were the same, proper H-E rounds filled the entire magazine. He reattached it and aimed the rifle at the gaping hatchway. The situation was beginning to plague his thoughts, and thousands of random, almost entirely improbable possibilities began to play out in his mind. _Was this a Covenant ship? Sure it looked like one, but that didn't mean anything. It could a race similar to the Covenant perhaps. Or was a test of him? Or were they even bothered about him? It takes a lot of effort to purge an AI out of a neural implant, so why do nothing with him? Why leave him armed? How much of a threat did they even consider him?_

            Suddenly a sound reverberated out of the hatchway. All of those strange thought processors were abandoned and replaced again with a purely tactical mindset. The sound seemed to echo around the room outside, and it was followed by an almost inaudible hiss, like a very quiet reprimand for the person or thing making that footstep. He took in a deep breath, concentrating on his sight and hearing, picking up any clues as to what was going on outside. The extent of the echoing suggested that it was a very big room outside, possibly a hangar if they were storing the Longsword in it. There were at least two contacts too, possibly three, most likely a hell of a lot more. He decided to do a little probing.

            He fired a round off through the door and hit the deck below, sending up a small fountain of sparks. His ears picked up a couple of small steps and a few extremely faint grunts. 

            Now that sounded like the Covenant, but it wasn't how the Covenant usually reacted. He would now be expecting at least half a dozen various Covenant troops coming to check out who had fired. But then this wasn't usual position for him to be in. He felt like he was being toyed with, and he hated it. He half-wished Cortana were with him now. If only to stop the various factions in his head acting in unison to drive him slowly but completely insane. He sighed, and wondered what they waiting for.

            "Chief!" He looked up, Cortana's voice? "Chief, you there?" She yelled again, her echoing voice coming from far outside the hatchway. 

            "Where are you Cortana?" The Chief called, still with his gun trained at the hatchway.

            "I'm outside, please come outside Chief." Her voice sounded surprisingly cold and quiet this time.

            "Cortana? Who is outside this fighter Cortana?

            "No-one Chief. Please come out, I'm scared." She didn't sound it. The Chief guessed it was some kind of trick, poorly done too by Covenant standards.

            "Cortana, I know someone is out there. I don't even know if this voice I'm hearing is actually you."

            "John, the people here…they're friends." She said softly, draining all the emotion out of her speech.

            "They're Covenant Cortana. Covenant." He growled.

            "Chief, John, you have to believe me, they are not going to hurt you. They're not the Covenant!"

            "Who are they then?" He asked, trying to sound as dispassionate as he could. 

            "You will have to see for yourself!" Her voiced raised slightly, as if she was slightly encouraged. The Chief sighed quietly.

            "Cortana?"

            "Yes?"

            "I've got no chance if I don't co operate have I?"

            "John, there is far more at stake here. Humanity relies on you coming outside right now!" She yelled again.

            "What are you talking about?"

            "John, you have got to come out, please."

            "Cortana, who is there?"

            "Chief, come outside." For some strange reason he crept forward. Everything in his rational mind told him this was a trap, and yet. There was something strange going on here, and he was going to find out. He moved slowly down the ramp, and bit-by-bit the hangar came into view.

            It seemed to be a Covenant designed interior all right. Vast, violet coloured, curved walls rose to a high ceiling far above him, pale blue lighting shining out of small grooves located on almost every part of the room's surfaces. Two Covenant landing craft lay parked at the end of the room, hovering under their glowing suspension rails. At the far side of the room opposite the Chief was a typical hexagonal Covenant door, and next to it was a holographic display panel. And there was Cortana, standing rather formally with her arms by her side in the holopanel's display emitters. She looked at the Chief with an emotionless expression and didn't make a sound.

            The Chief slowly walked forward with a combat stance. He moved his gun from side to side whilst continuously looking down the barrel, ready to engage anything remotely threatening. But he couldn't see anything apart from the Landing Craft floating harmlessly under its rack. He made his way cautiously toward Cortana's console. And then he stopped.

            A figure decloaked right in front of him, causing the Chief to stop and then take a leap back, bringing his gun up to train on this new arrival. The figure's active camouflage shield finally disappeared. It was an Elite. A big, fat, red Elite. And then right before his eyes two more Elites, this time in blue body armour, appeared on the red's flanks. _Shit_. He looked at the central Elite; it stood tall and menacing, as Elites tended to in times of victory. But it didn't say anything as it raised its rifle. The Chief didn't wait. He quickly rolled to the side and fired his Rifle into the red Elite. He fired off the entire magazine into him but every single bullet just pinged and ricocheted off the Elite's shield. _Shit_ crossed his mind for the umpteenth time and started to reload his clip, but the first plasma shot tore the rifle from his hands. He nearly fell over from the blast and turned to run.

            But two more blue Elites decloaked right in front of him as he ran back to the Longsword, and the nearer one smacked him hard with the butt of his Plasma Rifle. The Chief fell to the floor, heavily winded and nearly concussed. Through the corner of his eyes he saw two more blue Elites decloaked either side of him. All eight blue Elites walked up and aimed their rifles at him. The Chief sighed and looked up at their glaring faces. Cortana was going to die for being a traitor if he ever survived this.

            Then something even stranger happened, so the Chief thought.

            "Back off the human!" Came a loud gruff voice from behind the group of blue Elites, and they obeyed instantly. Their circle took a step back, allowing a gap to appear. The red Elite walked proudly up next to the Chief, still lying on his back and wishing many bad things to happen to Cortana, and looked down at him. He then growled again at the blue Elites standing around him, and they removed themselves much further away, till the red Elite gave a quieter grunt of approval. It looked down again at the Chief. The Elite gave him a studious look, as if it was puzzled by something, then it knelt down and offered the Chief a hand up.

            The Chief decided to just go along, too many strange things had happened for him to actually understand what was going on. He took the Elites hand and found himself almost flying up into the ceiling as the Covenant effortlessly pulled him up to a standing position. The Chief soon found his feet, and was even more surprised when the Elite sank to his knees and picked up the Chief's Assault Rifle. He took a clip from an unseen pouch in his armour and reloaded the human weapon. He thrust the now full rifle back into the Chief's hands. The Chief just stared back at the Elite, and he swore he saw Covenant give him a sort of smile.

            "A warrior should never be without his weapon, human." The red Elite growled at him, putting a well-armoured hand on the Chief's shoulder. "I am Commander Briyanku of the Rvarn'ii, and if you call me or any of my men a Covenant again, I'll tear your head off your shoulders." __


	3. To The Bridge

Disclaimer: Halo is the exclusive property of Bungie Software (God Bless 'Em). No money is made; I am simply honouring those wonderful, wonderful people. The Rvarn'ii: Part 3 

            The Chief blinked underneath his visor.

            "The Rvarn'ii? Your not Covenant?" He muttered slowly. Commander Briyanku growled at him when the Chief said Covenant again, and he decided not to do that again. "Okay, you are not the Covenant. Who are you?"

            "The Rvarn'ii, is your hearing defunct human?" The red Elite growled again, tapping the side of the Chief's helmet quite heavily with his well-armoured palm to conduct his statement. "We are the sworn enemies of the Covenant."

            "Well, right now that's a good thing I suppose," replied the Chief, still trying to comprehend this new turn of events. His hands held his rifle loosely around his waist, as he thought of the best thing to say next, thinking what question would get the best response. "But…you are almost…identical to the…them, you know, the guys you hate?" Briyanku took a step closer so that he was almost chest-to-chest with the Chief, and he towered a good foot above the human. He looked down menacingly at the Chief, and grunted a sound of some dissatisfaction. But after a tense moment or two where no one on either spoke, the Elite backed down and turned towards the door.

            "Follow me human." He growled without looking back. Cortana had left the holopanel and its usual door control display was back in place. The Chief gave a quick look at the eight or so blue Elites standing around him and followed Briyanku through the opened door. He had to almost run to keep up with the bigger Elite, but his travels through the ship weren't without their rewards; there were many opened hatchways that gave him an insight into his captor's daily lives. 

            One of the first open hatchways to his right showed what appeared to be a grunts' barracks. There were about five or six bright blue columns of light emanating up from the floor to the ceiling, and around the base of each 'pillar' there was about four or five sunken holes, each about half-a-foot deep and around two and a half feet wide, sided with a layer of blue padding. Inside a few of these holes were sleeping grunts; their bowed heads turned towards the light, which the Chief guessed, was a heat or energy source. The few grunts that were awake were chatting squeakily away around little tables, and they didn't give the Master Chief a second glance. The grunts themselves were different from those the chief had encountered before. Instead of a fin shaped backpack, they carried an almost cylindrical one, looking like a streamlined scuba diver's tank. And their colours were different too. Although there was one or two red grunts here and there who seemed to be in command, as far as the Chief could ascertain from the couple that were awake, most of them wore a blue, green, or white uniform, the colour varying from grunt to grunt for an unknown reason. Perhaps it denoted rank, as the colours did with the Elites, or perhaps their field of operation.

            However, they moved swiftly passed the grunts barracks and climbed a staircase onto the next level. This appeared to be the quarters of the Elites. Many storage lockers were open, displaying their contents of spare armour components and plasma weapons out onto the corridor. Through a door on the left the Chief saw what looked like a small assembly area for the Elite's themselves, with sixteen beefy looking blue Elites standing to attention as a red Commander spoke to them on top of a slightly raised podium on the opposite side of the room. Up another staircase, and this time they appeared to be near the ship's main infirmary. Through the few open doors the chief could make out various bed-like standalone units that were located in small alcoves. Within one of these was a wounded blue Elite, its dark indigo blood dripping ominously onto the lilac floor below. Above the fallen Rvarn'ii was a strange alien that the Chief had never seen before. It was like a small, un-armoured Elite, standing about six feet tall and was clothed in a blue, bulky uniform that had a few traces of highly developed muscles underneath it. It held in its four-fingered hand a small oval-shaped device that he periodically looked down at every few moments. The Chief noticed that Briyanku had stopped and had taken a step inside the room. The human stayed a pace behind.

            "How is Yrinken?" Said the red Elite, a hint of concern in his voice. The "doctor" alien gave the Covenant version of a sigh and looked directly at Briyanku.

            "If he survives the night…then we will be lucky. I…there is not much more that I can do." The alien's face fell and Briyanku looked down at the ground for a second.

            "He was a good warrior, brave but foolhardy. Y'vu, do what you can, we cannot afford to lose any more soldiers." He turned and looked at the Chief, his eyes staring deeply into the Chief's own even through the visor. "It hurts to lose your best men human, particularly when you can ill afford to." The big Elite brushed past the human warrior before the Chief turned and followed him. Another long corridor walk and one last staircase bought them up into the operations room.

            The huge double doors guarding this nerve centre of the ship slowly but surely retracted into the wall, revealing the operations centre to the Chief. It was nothing like the bridge of the "Truth and Reconciliation". For one thing, like the ship itself, it was far bigger than its Covenant counterpart. Every wall of the rectangular room was lined with purple, blue and green holographic control panels delivering a wealth on information on the ships systems and sensors to the dozen or so green uniformed grunts manning about half of the available seats. At the centre of the room on a slightly raised platform was three standing Elites. Manning a circular control panel at the front of the platform was a blue uniformed Elite, who's eyes switched quite rapidly between its control panel and the large holographic viewscreen that was suspended high above the opposite wall above the grunt's consoles. The view was currently a strange red swirling pattern, almost as if the pilot (or whatever the blue Elite was) was flying the ship into a crimson stained whirlpool. Then next an extremely tough looking gold Elite who was standing in the exact middle of the platform was Briyanku. The two high ranking Rvarn'ii were exchanging quick but almost silent words as the gold Elite gave a curious glance in the Chief's direction. More words were spoken, and then Briyanku called the Chief over.

            "Master Chief", growled Briyanku as he used his voice to imply that the human give this new Elite a lot of respect. "This is Captain Rniork, commanding Elite of the Rvarn'ii Cruiser "Proven Consequence", your host for the next few days." The red Elite took a step back, and his superior stepped up and looked down thoughtfully at the human.

            "So, you are the famed "Master Chief"?" The human looked up emotionlessly at the Captain, his mind almost smirking however at the thought of his infamy.

            "I am Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, of the UNSC Marine Corp, if that is who you are referring to." The Elite Captain frowned (so the Chief thought anyway) and took a step back, looking the human over from head to toe. Its eyes paused briefly on the rifle that was still in the Chief's arms. Then he smiled, a proper, human smile. He spoke again, in a far less harsh tone than the growl of Briyanku.

            "The "Cutya Kuldis"!" He laughed. The Chief noticed that for the first time the rest of the bridge crew looked up from their console displays and had a good look at him. Some of the grunts exchanged a few excited whispers before the blue Elite gave a loud growl and the quiet muttering promptly ceased. The grunts turned back to their displays, as the Captain looked the Chief in the eyes again. "The Angel of Death", Master Chief," he paused. "Your 'nickname' in the Covenant reports we intercepted. You are a wanted creature, human, just be glad we found you when we did."

            "The Angel of Death?" Repeated the Chief slowly, "well, it seems I have something to learn here…"

            "Indeed you do," replied the Captain, "come with Briyanku and I, there is much to explain. Mristuwk, you have command of the bridge till I return." The blue Elite gave a grunt of acknowledgement as the Captain, the Master Chief and Briyanku turned and exited the operations centre.


	4. The Holographic Simulator

Disclaimer: Halo is the exclusive property of Bungie Software (God Bless 'Em). No money is made; I am simply honouring those wonderful, wonderful people. The Rvarn'ii: Part 4 

            Rniork, Briyanku and the Chief walked in single profile back out onto the corridor. Stopping for a second, the two Elites muttered something the Chief couldn't pick up, but the two started walking again almost as soon as he caught up with them. They started off on another long trek through the labyrinth of purple-schemed corridors and rooms that made up the interior of the "Proven Consequence".  Everywhere they walked though, the amount of respect paid to them by the rest of the crew was almost religious in its devotion. Whenever they entered a new corridor, every single Grunt, Elite, and whatever other sort of Rvarn'ii in there immediately halted whatever they were doing and stood to attention, only relaxing slightly as the Captain passed and only fully returning to their duties once they left through the next set of doors. 

They were making their way towards the bow of the cruiser, heading down another set of staircases before passing into a huge hall, nearly half a mile long between its farthest walls, lined with a strange pattern of elliptical white spirals dotted evenly over bright blue walls. The room's pale cyan lighting seemed to be coming from the walls themselves, but there was nothing the Chief could see occupying the floor of the chamber, aside from a small holographic display by the door they came in through. High above them on the ceiling, however, were lines and lines of small, circular, silver coloured devices about a meter or so in diameter. There were hundreds of these devices arranged neatly in horizontal rows and columns that covered the entire ceiling from one side of the chamber to the other. 

When the trio arrived at the centre of the room, the Captain stopped and turned to look at the Master Chief running up behind him. The Rvarn'ii pulled a small hand-held computer-like object out of one of his armour's many pouches and pressed the single black button located on it. Out of the top of the device a small holographic screen about six inches across materialised, and holding the base unit, Rniork began pressing various panels on the display. The gold Elite looked over at the Chief, who was gazing from one end of the room to the other. A small grunt from the Captain got the human's attention.

"Master Chief, this room is a holographic simulator, one of most important training resources we have onboard. Before we dine together, I feel there is one or two things I should show you first." He pressed another button and then turned off the device. Suddenly a strange whirling sound filled the air around them, and the Chief looked up at the walls as the white spirals began to change colour, firstly to bright red, and then to a warm, glowing orange that seemed to expand slowly across the wall. The whirring sound became louder and the Chief stretched back his neck so he could look right up to the ceiling, and he soon identified where the sound was coming from.

Each of the silver disks had begun to spin rapidly, and the dull insignia that the Spartan hadn't noticed before began to glow as an intensely bright white light. Slowly but surely each of the disks lowered gently down from the ceiling, each disk descending at a different speed and stopping at a different height from the one next to it. Then from the disks that had stopped being lowered came a three dimensional, blue lined computer mesh of a very blocky and unrefined terrain. As each disk stopped, the blue mesh spread, it contours and valleys matching the similar disposition of the disks a few metres above them. The chief kept turning his head, looking one-way and then another as this virtual landscape began to form around him and the two Elites. 

As soon as all the disks had descended and the blue mesh completed, a second wave of colour appeared. Each of the surface polygons began to fill with colour, starting on the various peaks of the surrounding terrain. Dull greyish colours with rocky textures at first, then various patchy greens in the lower valleys as the colour seeped into them. Little islands of these detailed polygons began to merge as the Chief looked on. Soon the whole area was filled, giving the room the impression of the environment of one of those early 21st Century Earth computer game, like those primitive but playable first player shooting ones that the Chief had enjoyed playing as a young kid. Once this colourful transformation was completed, that the terrain itself began to change once more. Each polygon became more detailed, little holes and bumps appeared, thousands and thousands of accurately rendered grass stems rose out of the green patches, the fragile leaves blowing in a virtual wind. Soon the landscape had become real. The level of detail was superb; it was almost like a moving photograph. Each little segment that had once been a flat panel was now moulded inconspicuously with its adjacent neighbours, its form altered to accurately imitate a real landscape. It looked strangely like a speeded up nature film to the Chief as he watched the final, minute alterations take place that finally created a seamless, incredibly real terrain that towered and fell before him.

But the computer wasn't finished yet, not by a long shot. The dull whirring changed pitch and volume into a louder, higher note. The lilac, spiral-covered walls that could still be seen suddenly disappeared into a jet-black surround, before turning almost instantly again into a plain, pinkish blue colour that looked like the sky in the evening. The ceiling also underwent a similar transformation. Soon there was a primitive looking sky that covered every trace of the outside of the virtually created environment. The perspective of the scenario itself was altered, objects and the sky decoration itself became more distant, until it became impossible to accurately judge distances in this room. The sky seemed to stretch into the heavens itself many hundreds of miles above, and in any direction it seemed the rocky terrain stretched for many kilometres. It looked like an almost lifeless Earth, a land almost completely devoid of anything but the little patches of grass and the ground itself that the three warriors were standing on. 

The Chief opened his eyes wide in amazement as he arched his head over the now never-ending landscape. He had the sudden urge to remove his armour and experience and test the full range of feelings that this artificially created but all too real world could provide. He sighed lightly as he gazed along the contours of the land, watching as rivers, great grass filled plains and giant mountain ranges began to form in the distance, stretching from horizon to horizon. For a moment, the human forgot he was on an Rvarn'ii ship at all. He kneeled down in the patch of dark, yellowy grass, and removed one of his armoured gloves. He put the metal covering on the ground, and then ran his long, muscular fingers through the delicate blades and relaxing at the almost forgotten sensations he felt run up his arm. The hairs on the back of his palm began to stand on end as they felt a cool and gentle breeze running across the little rises and dips. He stood back up and removed his helmet, the sealed clips snapping open as he guided his fingers along the bottom edge and pulled the helmet off and tucked it under his right arm. He smiled slightly as the cool air blew through his short hair, his eyes closing as he breathed in, pushing his chest out as far as the suit would allow him.

A moment later he opened his eyelids again, watching the light wispy clouds now forming overhead. More spectacular objects appeared in the sky, a bright blazing star, like a distant Sol would be in Earth's sky, and then a faint moon appearing up over the horizon in the same view. The Chief leant down and picked up his glove, slung it into his empty helmet, and then detached the other glove and put it with its companion. He turned and looked at the two Elites, whom were both staring at him as if trying to figure something out. They turned to face each other momentarily, before Rniork looked down at the human again.    

"Impressed?" He asked plainly.

"Very", muttered the Chief in response. "Where is this place?"

"You will know soon enough, look behind you." The Chief turned again, and his eyes fell on a swarming mass appearing in the sky. A dull red and orange sphere was slowly expanding, it soon grew larger than the faint moon on the opposite horizon, and it kept on growing continuously as the human gazed at it. Soon its lower surface disappeared under the horizon, and it began to take on a familiar form. And then out of the corner of his eye something else appeared, something terrifyingly familiar. The horizon had begun to rise far beyond the nearby mountains, a blue and green strip of land many miles across slowing began to curve upwards. Clouds and waves were visible rippling over the surface as the strip rose higher into the sky. With a flash of recognition the Chief turned around exactly, and before his eyes the opposite horizon was itself becoming dominated by the rising strip of landscape. The human, the correct idea forming in his mind, watched the strip become thinner and thinner as it rose far up into the sky. It soon reached so far above that both strips could be seen heading towards each other thousands of miles above. They joined noiselessly, the only sound being the rustling and whistling of the wind flowing across the landscape. The ring was complete…

"Halo…" The Chief whispered to himself, his eyes following the land from one horizon up along the interior of the ring to the other horizon where it dipped behind some low rolling hills in the distance. His breath faltered for a second, the two Rvarn'ii long forgotten as a flood of memories came storming back. He took a few steps forward, his eyes wandering again on this incredible landscape. It seemed remotely peaceful, as though it was how Halo should have been, not a home to a super weapon or to a race of parasitic aliens, or the battleground between two hell-bent foes. This was how it was supposed to be, a beautiful, almost mythological artefact of a powerful but long dead race, a token of their history, an example of their power. Something to gaze in awe at, to explore, not something to fear and loathe.

"Hello John", sounded a pleasant, but thoughtful female voice behind him. 

The Chief turned on the spot, and found he was looking directly into the eyes of Cortana. 

Or at least, he thought it was Cortana. The person standing before him had her voice and figure, but she was more, well, _human_. Her body was no longer a skin of various panels, but an actual human body, complete with pale skin and short, black hair. She wore a figure-hugging blue cat suit, made of a stretchy but soft looking material, and she seemed as pleased with her own appearance as she was with seeing the Chief. She ran her hands across her arms, her fingers gliding across the material as she sighed happily. She looked down for a second before looking back up at the Chief again, allowing her eyes to settle into his.  

"Did you miss me?" She asked politely, giggling slightly as his wide-eyed reaction.

"A bit," he muttered, starting to smile himself. "Although you had me worried for a while." He added as an almost afterthought.

"Hmmm," she bite her lip, "consider it payback, John, for the Longsword." She put on a serious expression, the smile disappearing within an instant.

"Okay, we're even." Replied the Chief curtly. The smile returned to Cortana's face. She looked over her shoulder at the nearby Elites. "You better not keep them waiting." With those words she vanished in an instant, leaving the Chief to walk back to the Rvarn'ii officers.

"I see you met your friend." Said Rniork, who looked over the ring world's landscape himself as he address the human. "Very polite individual, an extremely advanced A.I even by our standards. She seems to be very relaxed here; Moruk appears to get along with her very well."

"Moruk?" Enquired the Chief.

"Our own resident A.I, slightly more advanced than Cortana, but a lot less…lively, I think would be the correct term. It has been a mutually benefiting exchange for the both of them." Rniork sounded slightly distracted when he finished his sentence. "Anyway, back to business, as you humans say. You'll recognise this place as the 'Halo' ring world, the Forerunner facility, the weapon that you bought about the destruction of, if I am not mistaken. Your almost single-handed destruction of this incredibly powerful installation along with the annihilation of an entire Covenant battle force makes you a very prominent figure in all three of our cultures." 

"Well, thanks, but…"

"We are not here just to rescue you though, although our timely entry onto the scene is surely appreciated by your good self. We have been searching for you, well, every possible Spartan II we can find, since we first learnt of the project's inception, although we know that you were the only survivor from your group after the fall of Reach. We have been tracking you at long distance since the Pillar of Autumn escaped the Covenant at Reach, and we have monitored the various communications from all the factions since the arrival of the Autumn within Halo's surrounding space until we could establish and confirm the presence of a Spartan II on Halo itself. We were despatched to rescue you and any other survivors, but unfortunately the Covenant's meddling with technology they don't understand, simply to comply with their religious fervour, meant the release of the 'Flood' spores present within Halo. We feared it would be too late but your resourcefulness is impressive to say the least." Rniork took a pause before continuing.

"Humans' adaptability and resourcefulness may yet see them through, but your race, Master Chief, is losing a war it can't afford to. You have your backs against the wall, and I guess you do not even know why?"

"Pardon?" Replied the Chief, suddenly feeling quite shocked at the statement.

"Do you understand why the Covenant are hunting you down?" Rniork asked, unassumingly.

"Because they believe we are an affront to their gods or something?" Replied the Chief, suddenly realising how vague his answer was.

"Not quite, in fact, not really that close at all, although there is a religious underpinning to it all. Come with me, and I'll try and explain it to you." He turned, nodded to Briyanku, and pressed another button on his little computer screen. The entire scene vaporised in a couple of seconds, leaving just a few spiralling pixels under each ceiling disk, which were once again visible. They had reverted back to their original state and were now ascending back into the ceiling, and the Chief found himself standing right back in the middle of the room he had walked into a few moments before.


	5. Unwelcome Guests

Disclaimer: Halo is the exclusive property of Bungie Software (God Bless 'Em). No money is made; I am simply honouring those wonderful, wonderful people. 

A/N: Sorry about the wait, a mixture of various vacations and reading The Fall Of Reach made me realise how many big plot holes there were in my story. Well, I have drafted an edited version, and the story is now much better than before, I think so anyway. Next chapter will be another big space battle, and then hopeful some Master Chief Killing Stuff spree :D

The Rvarn'ii: Part 5 

            The three of them departed the holographic simulator through the doors they entered by. Taking a sharp turn to the left, then a down a gently sloping corridor they marched silently on, the Chief keeping his pace faster than normal to make sure he didn't lose the two high ranking Elites in front of him. The two Rvarn'ii talked quietly but quickly to each other, seemingly forgetting their human guest for the moment. They were moving right into the bow of the ship now, the Chief seeing the roof develop into a gradual curve that mimicked the outer layer of the ship, the dark lilac beams that made up the main supporting skeleton of the vessel began appearing through the ceiling tiles. His eyes focused on these supports as he became aware of the differences apparent within their texture. Through their length he saw small, dark purple lines threading the semi opaque material that made up the bulk of the beam. His superior eyesight allowed him to discern some minute flow of liquid in the purple tendrils, which looked almost like the flow of blood through the veins in his own body. It had quite an unnerving effect as he walked past each support.

            "What the hell is this ship made of?" He asked the two Rvarn'ii in front of him. Only the Captain turned his head to address the human as they walked on. He gave his answer in a sort of soft growl.

            "The interior is made up of standard titanium-derivative compounds, tough enough to hold together despite a considerable battering. The outside hull, however, is a bio-metallic composite. That is, the actual material has organic qualities. The hull repairs itself extremely well, particularly in battle, and when the ships are built originally, the organic metal is actually grown over a light mineral mesh, almost like an animal's skin I suppose. The finished casing is incredibly strong, there being no metal joins over the entire surface means that there are no weak spots. Heat and energy absorption are superb, most plasma impacts can be handled without any noticeable effect. Indeed, our hull is more resistant to attack than our energy shields are. The veins you see pump mineral nutrients to various parts of the hull the need repairing, as well as various agents that may required to fend off an attack by a chemical based weapon. The network also has a primitive nerve structure running throughout the hull that we have attached to our internal sensors, allowing us excellent damage control and general maintenance data." The Rvarn'ii turned his head back as the three rounded another corner.

            "Interesting," muttered the Chief, as he slowly took in the information. "You mean you do have shipyards in the Rvarn'ii?"

            "Small, mobile ones, fast enough to be able to manoeuvre out of trouble should the Covenant find them. I'm afraid our limited numbers means that despite our technological advancement over them we still do not have the resources to maintain any fixed positions, except small outposts located in undiscovered or rarely visited systems. Most of our numbers reside within their ships. Which is why we have been desperate to contact you."

            "Us?" Replied the Chief, staring at the back of Rniork's neck.

            "Yes human, your kind." Growled Briyanku fiercely, as if he didn't think much of the human's comment, or indeed the human at all. The Captain spoke again.

            "All will be explained after we have eaten. I should imagine you are sick of combat rations Master Chief." 

            "I guess. Although I'm not sure about your cuisine either."

            "True, but, I am your host, so I guess protocol dictates you at least try it my human friend." The Gold Elite laughed heartily, "believe me human, it is better than the being the cuisine itself on a Covenant table."

            "Hmmmm," was the Chief's only, quiet reply, as he once again looked around the corridor they were walking through. The side doors leading off to various places were much fewer and farther between now, instead, large, cylindrical circuitry columns stood on either side of the corridor, their neon glow and gentle hum adding to the alien atmosphere of the ship. Little electric sparks shot across the various; lattice-like bunches of matter that made up Rvarn'ii circuitry, giving the impression, to the Master Chief at least, of micro thunderstorms raging throughout the controls of the ship. He wondered just whether the ship itself was just another breed of overgrown Rvarn'ii, and if it was the best friend of anyone in particular. The pulsating red tendrils that were still visible through the bulkheads seemed only to reinforce this weird idea in his head.

            He stopped just behind the two Elites as they grinded to a halt. They turned to a door on their right and Rniork pressed a single green panel at its side. The door slid into the wall without a sound and the two Rvarn'ii immediately entered the room beyond. The chief followed them quickly in what rapidly transpired to be a sort of senior officer's wardroom for the Rvarn'ii. The room had minimal lighting, a sort of pale yellow instead of the usual blue or purple prevalent in the rest of the ship. A single circular table, seemingly made of black marble or something close, rose out of the centre of the room, surrounded by three small but elegantly decorated stools placed at equal length around the table's circumference. Three elliptical silver dishes rested adjacent to the seats, sparkling under the light to give off an almost gold effect upon their highly polished surface. Across the far wall of the room ran a enclosed display of various items taken as mementos from the various conflicts the ship had been engaged in, including a rather eerie blood-stained helmet that had by its decoration once belonged to a Covenant Elite.

            All three sat down at their assigned seat, sitting in silent meditation that Rniork said was an important part of Rvarn'ii eating etiquette. After several minutes a small door on the opposite wall from the Chief opened and revealed a grunt in white uniform carrying a large tray, which had upon it, three aqua-coloured spheres slightly indented on their base so they could sit comfortably on a flat surface. The grunt moved first to the captain, setting one of the cylinders down in front of him, then, he moved to the Chief, and then onto the Briyanku, who was still in meditation. The Chief noticed that the cylinder had a small hole in it; perhaps an inch in diameter, and inside this 'cup' was a thick, bright scarlet liquid.

            "This is Draf, an extremely rare but widely appreciated drink. It is an acquired taste though human, I must warn you." Rniork took a large swig from his cup. The Chief held his in his hand and looked deeply into its content, wondering just what a Rvarn'ii acquired taste must be like. He raised the cup to his lips and took a small swig. 

It wasn't as bad as it could have been, the Chief thought. It was surprisingly thick, almost the consistency of honey, although its actual taste was rather unusual. It was a sort of mild sweet, as if the taste was supposed to be there but wasn't quite. In fact it was rather bland, although quite filling in the Chief's mind. Better than Cryochamber Inhalant anyway.

After a minute the grunt reappeared with another tray, this time whatever it was smelled quite strongly, a well-cooked meat kind of smell, and the human was taken aback when dumped on his plate was a single, blue egg shaped vegetable covered in a strange scarlet sauce. The Chief winced. He saw no cutlery, and watched for a moment whilst the two Elites began to eat theirs. Both attacked it with their fingers, the sauce running off their gloved hands as their sharp claws dug huge chunks out of the food in front of them. Scratching off mouthful-sized chunks they proceeded to eat quite rapidly, the food simply being swallowed rather than chewed. Giant bulges in the Elites' necks showed the passage of the food as it quickly descended into their internal digestive systems. The Chief looked at his own vegetable sitting lopsided on the plate, and decided to try. He took the plant and began to split in his powerful fingers, watching the flesh of the vegetable contort and collapse under his grip. He took one of the few loose pieces and put in his mouth. He nearly coughed it back up. A thousand times hotter than the spiciest thing he had eaten before, only the Spartan's incredible pain control stopped him bringing the food back up. He grabbed the Draf and took a huge gulp and the fire went out immediately. It was replaced by another strange taste, almost like a sweet and sour dish, except with a more, well, tangy taste. The Chief swallowed and looked up at the two Elites, who had just finished and even the emotionless Briyanku looked fairly content. They stared at him as though waiting for him to do or say something. Rniork was the first to speak.

"Well, it appears the Orosk Seed was a dish too much for you human." The Chief felt slightly humiliated, perhaps for the first time since he was first bought to Reach all those years ago…

"It wasn't to my taste," he said. Rniork nodded.

"Our palettes, human, are a lot less sensitive than yours, and so to produce the same stimulation, we must eat food with a flavour many times stronger than any food normal humans can tolerate. Anyhow, we…" He trailed off again as he turned away for a moment, as if distracted by something else. He got up slightly, leaning forward on his powerful knees, cocking his head as if trying to hear something distant. He rose to his full height and walked over to the far wall. John began to hear something too, an extremely low hum, vibrating through the furniture, a micrometer of movement above that generated by the engines. He rose to his feet. Briyanku sat looking a bit unnerved, not quite having hearing sensitive enough to pick up the gentle vibration. Rniork placed a three-clawed hand on the wall, held it for a moment, and then withdrew as if stung by an electric current. He turned to the two others in the room.

"Covenant!" He growled in a hearty war cry. Briyanku literally jumped from his seat and turned to the door behind him. He ran out, yelling at the top of his lungs or whatever he had, followed by the determined forms of Rniork and the Master Chief. All three ran through the corridors at a frightening pace, sending many of the Rvarn'ii crew, including several big Elites, jumping hastily out of the way. The Captain pressed a button on his wrist.

"Rniork to the bridge", he growled into his hand. 

"Bridge here!" Came the immediate response. Mristuwk sounded slightly worried.

"Are there any readings on any of the proximity or spectral scanners?" Rniork cried, jumping through a pair of bulkhead doors that hadn't quite opened in time. "Anything at all?"

"We're detecting a couple of minor anomalies on the rear spectral scopes. At least three, possibly four separate targets, although at this range it difficult to tell. I released a wake probe to see if I can get any more data on the objects. I was just about to bring the "Proven Consequence" to Alert stations, Captain."

"Bring her up to Battle stations Mristuwk!"

"Yes Captain. We will begin receiving the data back from the probe in 23 seconds."

"Okay, Rniork out." The Captain put his wrist down but did not slacken the pace, the corridor reverberating quite horrifically as three fast powerful strides powered along it. It took just three minutes to race the mile and a half back to the bridge. As they ran, a dark purple light began flashing along every corridor, along with a ship wide electronic message from Moruk to prepare for battle. They entered the bridge, as Mristuwk was finishing off analysing the first telemetry from the wake probe. The Blue Elite turned to three new arrivals, his face locked in an expression of determination.

"Captain," he said, his voice dripped with the closest an Elite got to anticipation, "we've picked up five Covenant vessels, four Vrako class frigates and a Gurloh class destroyer, all in attack formation, accelerating on our current course and heading. They will be within our firing arc without adjustment in 57 seconds." The Chief noticed Rniork smile at the sound of the destroyer. He spoke swiftly back to Mristuwk.

"I assume it's some of our friends from the Omega battle group?"

"Yes sir," replied the junior Elite, rechecking his console. "All the identification markers check out. It appears that they caught our trail when we disabled one of their ships whilst picking up the human."

            "Very good, I was hoping they would follow us from there. This way it appears they found us by fortune. How's the battle damage from our previous encounter with the bulk of Omega?" Rniork stared up at the viewscreen, straining his eyes to see the rapidly approaching Covenant ships as they appeared in the distance. 

            "The internal damage to our secondary power grid has been patched up well enough to last us till our next sojourn at the space dock. Our regrowers have managed to repair roughly eighty percent of the damage to our external bio-armour; I think the report is on your desk sir. Those point blank hits did some considerable damage despite the relatively weak energy of their beam weapons." Rniork stood in thought for a moment.

            "Accelerate us slightly, keep us equal to their speed. I'll need to brief Briyanku and the human on something." He turned to face his two dinner companions as they looked attentively at him. He looked at them both for a moment, as if trying to decide between the two, and then plumped for the Chief. The tall Gold Elite looked down directly at the human in front of him, and spoke quite rapidly. "We tracked your fighter roughly twenty two hours after you left the Halo artefact. Before detecting your long-range distress signal we were tasked with bringing about the destruction of the primary ship construction facilities of the Omega battle group, a large force of about five hundred various Covenant vessels. Although rescuing you wasn't in our primary mission objectives, a standard order dictating that finding you is the paramount objective of an Rvarn'ii vessel overrides anything else, and so we came as soon as we could. When we spotted two Covenant vessels pursuing you however, we decided to wait until they actually slowed down to engage you before making our own attack upon them and recovering you. Both those vessels were part of Omega, and so we knew that at least several vessels would track us if we kept within a certain speed and distance of the original combat point. Our last encounter cost us a bit in exterior damage, although they lost seven frigates, four destroyers and a carrier in the process." He paused momentarily, making sure the Chief had taken it all in.

"I am surprised that they sent such a small force after us, particularly after our last encounter. But the last time they attacked en mass cost them a third of their detachment. So I assume they're going to gamble with a smaller force in the hope our weapons can't track them as well if they have more manoeuvring room. Fools, and it gives us an opportunity we didn't have the last couple of times. You see, destroyers are command level ships, and so in their databases they have complete listings and specifications of all ships and bases within their unit hierarchy, including fleet level information. I am hoping that we can disable this destroyer and retrieve all the necessary information out of its computer core. Which is where, my human friend come in. Your inbuilt A.I will be restored to you, and your good self and a team of Rvarn'ii Elite Commandos will board the destroyer and acquire the necessary data using you're A.I's core invasive programming. It's slightly risky, but judging by the Covenant's combat reports you seem to do pretty well against uneven odds. This is not an order, I do not possess the authority to give your orders, it is a request, Master Chief, but I should warn you that Omega's next destination is the Sol star system."


	6. Envy

Disclaimer: Halo is the exclusive property of Bungie Software (God Bless 'Em). No money is made; I am simply honouring those wonderful, wonderful people. The Rvarn'ii: Part 6 

             The "Proven Consequence" exited gracefully into normal space, its engines changing their hum as their energies were redirected from the Slipspace drive to the sublight engines. The four mile long ship performed a graceful arc against its starry background, turning to face its pursuers as they emerged themselves. Millions of micro thrusters dotted over every square meter of the Rvarn'ii ship controlled its flight down to the nearest millimetre, to the smallest second of a degree. Weapon covers were opened, bulkhead doors were sealed, and hundreds of other various checks and controls were conducted and carried out. The ship braced itself for a fight.

            "Activate the main energy shields, and bring the main combat display online." Ordered Rniork to his well-drilled crew. A grunt flicked several switches on his display and with a gentle purr that seemed to reverberate across the entire ship, the silver lined energy shields formed around their generators and extended to cover the entire ship within a fraction of a second. A second grunt at another console also got to work. It touched a small panel and then the main viewscreen went entirely black, before beginning to expand across the entire face of the wall at the front of the room. The holographic display began to curve however, and soon encompassed the entire forward view of the command room. The display returned, much bigger than before, and John could see the predicted re-entry points for their Covenant pursuers as well as the firing arcs for the various weapons the "Proven Consequence" carried. 

            Rniork now stood silently on the central platform, his eyes following the movement of the Covenant vessels on the screen. Briyanku let out a low growl, his eyes darting from one console to the other, as if making sure everyone was ready for what was about to come. Dozens of Grunt hands tapped through hundreds of holographic buttons, and in the corner of the view screen the yellow outlines of the ships of the Covenant task force appeared, each model framed by a blue outline and labels written in the Rvarn'ii language.

            John felt the hum of the engines lower slightly as the movement of the vessel stabilised. The viewscreen reverted back to the normal outside view, looking out onto the space that was soon to become a killing zone. His right hand gripped the edge of his helmet hard as he felt the adrenaline surge. He had been on the bridges of multiple UNSC vessels as he watched the Covenant destroy world after world before his very eyes, and now, he hoped perhaps the Covenant wouldn't emerge victorious this time. He looked upon the Elites with silent envy.

            A second later, the light from distant stars began to distort as the fabric of space bubbled and tore apart in a sea of green light as the first of the Covenant craft appeared. The destroyer. The shark-like lilac hull appeared out of the breach, bathed in a green hue. It headed straight for the "Proven Consequence" as soon as it cleared the subspace tear, and soon enough four more exit points appeared in a perfect 'V' formation around the destroyer itself as the rest of the task group appeared. Elegant and threatening, they moved purposely as one towards the Rvarn'ii cruiser.

            "Lock on primary cannon to the destroyer and disable their main systems." Ordered Rniork, his head moving from one screen to the other. "Load all missile bays, and activate all defensive batteries". The Grunts at the various consoles immediately set about their task. Then one of them spoke up in its customarily high voice.

            "Sir, the group is arming their primary guided energy weapon. Launching in six cycles." The Grunt blurted out. Rniork didn't look concerned.

            "Maximum power to the forward and flank shield arrays." The Captain stared intently now at the lead ship on the viewscreen. The Chief merely waited, watching as much of what was going on as he could. He watched the now familiar ventral lines of the Covenant craft glow red as they powered up their plasma torpedoes.

            "All missile bays loaded captain," yelled another Grunt, this one a major who had jumped onto one of the weapon control consoles.

            "Target the frigates only, destroy them…." Replied Rniork before he was interrupted by the news that the plasma torpedoes had been launched. "All crew prepare for impact. Launch all missile tubes now!"

            The Chief felt four minor shudders through his boots, and on the viewscreen he saw four of the small plasma coated missiles that destroyed the original Covenant vessel appear from the nose of the "Proven Consequence". On the screen four red digital trails showed the intended path of the weapons, one for each of the Covenant frigates. And then the Covenant fired.

            Five blazing red balls of fire leapt from the Covenant vessels, flying in graceful arcs towards the Rvarn'ii vessel. They glided gently through space curving towards the "Proven Consequence". They were not going to miss.

            "Eight Cycles to impact!" Yelled the first Grunt. Rniork turned and looked at the Master Chief.

            "You better grab onto something." Rniork muttered. The Grunt on the console counted down from his display.   

            The torpedoes flew into the bow of the "Proven Consequence". A massive shudder ran through the bridge, flinging a few of the Grunts from their seats and nearly landing the Chief on the floor. The holographic displays flickered and massive yellow energy tendrils shot across the viewscreen. The vessel stabilised after a slight pitch and the upended bridge crew returned to their stations. The Master Chief righted himself as Rniork ordered a damage assessment.

            "Forward, ventral and flank shields at forty percent, hull plating intact with no reported breaches. All systems operating to within specified parameters. Medical is reporting no serious injuries to the crew." Reported the grunt major, his eyes following the lists on his display.

            "Good, how long to our weapon's impact?"

            "Seven Cycles and counting." Called out another Grunt. The Chief watched the path of the weapons on the screen. The seconds seem to slow down as the missiles approached, their courses becoming slightly erratic as they dodged the pulse laser blasts the Covenant tried to shoot them down with. The first one impacted into the frigate on the destroyer's right flank. A dull white light filled the screen, and the Chief saw the yellow model turned red as its blue outline disappeared. The white light faded, and revealed only the blackened rear half of the frigate, the front portion entirely vaporised by the blast. The nearby frigate and the destroyer reeled away from the blast, their shields shattered by the explosion.

            The next three missiles didn't miss either. The other frigate on the destroyer's right was hit with its shield down. When the light faded, nothing remained, just a purple and blue cloud of exhaust plasma generated by the explosion. The remaining vessels tried to turn, but to no avail. The farthest vessel on the destroyer's left flank was hit amid-ship. The explosion tore the vessel in two; a pair of blackened metal hull pieces drifting around each other in the wake of the blast was all that survived the explosion.

The last frigate has nearly made it.

Nearly.

The Rvarn'ii missile tore into the rear of the vessel, erasing the engine unit and setting off the reactor. A bright purple cloud engulfed the entire scene, and the last of the Covenant frigates was no more. The four frigate models were displayed in bright scarlet across the bottom of the viewscreen. It reminded the Chief of the kill markings on a Longsword's hull.

            Of the Covenant battle group, only the destroyer now remained. It set off a pitiful round of pulse laser bursts that evaporated harmlessly over the hull of the "Proven Consequence" before turning and trying to flee. Rniork wasn't going to let that happen. The massive beam cannon mounted on the Rvarn'ii vessel's prowl ripped into the unshielded hull. The beam ripped the armour apart, penetrating deep into the vessel, disabling most of the systems inside. The purple haze surrounding the engines faded, and the horribly disfigured Covenant ship began to drift in space. 

            The Chief just stared. In less than a minute the "Proven Consequence" had destroyed a force an entire UNSC carrier battle group would be outgunned by. He was silent with jealousy, his military mind comprehending the raw power this vessel contained. If only the Rvarn'ii had got to humanity first…if only…

            "Well, Master Chief, now it's your turn." The Chief looked into the eyes of Rniork. "Into the belly of the beast." The Chief couldn't help but grin.


End file.
